


What's Lost is Found

by Mainmanda



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, M/M, POV First Person, Poor Everyone, Poor Josh, Romance, Tags May Change, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-30
Updated: 2016-05-30
Packaged: 2018-07-11 02:39:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7023835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mainmanda/pseuds/Mainmanda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Josh was sober enough to run after Hannah and Beth that night at the cabin, but none of them made it back. Chris had given up hope that his best friend could still be alive, until he received the phone call. These boys will never be the same. Written from Chris's POV.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What's Lost is Found

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is kind of an experiment of mine to see how well I can write something more serious. It's also my excuse to torture my beloved boys cause I'm trash sorry!

I'll never forget the moment when I got that phone call. “They found him” the man over the phone had said. Those three words were all that it took to bring me to my knees. This wasn’t possible. This couldn’t be possible. It had been so long. They had all given up. It just wasn’t plausible to stay hopeful anymore, but they found him. They really found him. Josh was alive.

The tears came next, hot and heavy from an intense mix of both joy and guilt. Josh was alive and we gave up looking- I gave up looking. He was alive and we- I… failed him. I would never forgive myself. I was told the hospital where Josh would be kept, but there would be no visitors until Josh reached stable conditions. I feared for the worst. I wanted to see him now, I didn't want to wait. I knew it was selfish, but fuck it, I didn’t care. My best friend who I finally began to except was gone is alive and they expect me to wait? Stable or not, if Josh was breathing in his final breath, I wanted to be there- I should be there, like I wasn’t before. 

\----

I got the second call when Josh had stabilized, but I was warned in advance that he did not look well and to be strong if Josh happened to be awake during my visit. I didn’t know what to think, and I sure as hell didn’t know what to say in response exactly, but I managed to agree. I wanted to see him as soon as possible. In a way though, I wanted Josh to be asleep. After all, what would I say? "Hey bro how's it hanging?" doesn’t sound completely appropriate given the circumstances, or "sorry we stopped looking bro. It must have sucked to be lost in an abandoned mine for like two months?" Definitely not. I realized after the fact that those thoughts were undeniably selfish and I needed to stop thinking that way. Who was I to be so concerned about myself after what Josh has been through?! 

I managed to keep my composure during the car ride to the hospital, during the visitor check in process, and when I finally reached the room. I needed to be strong for Josh. The last thing he needed was to have people crying over him as he recovered. Josh wouldn't like it that way anyhow. I stepped into the room. My eyes were immediately drawn to the figure lying in the bed. Josh was there- asleep as I imagined he’d be. Even from this distance his face appeared thin and his skin dull, lacking life. Josh was hooked up to so many machines that jittered, blinked, and beeped that it reminded me of those dumb, old sci-fi movies we used to love watching in middle school. Josh's dad had such a huge collection of them. 

I pulled up a chair next to the bed side and waited. For anything really. Everything was just so stagnant. Time stood still in this room. An hour came and went and Josh hadn't moved a muscle. The only way to tell he was alive was the heart beat monitor making sharp beeps at fairly even intervals. I closed my eyes and listened…

 

Beep

…

Beep 

…

A nurse came shortly after and politely explained how visiting hours were over and it was soon time for Josh's vitals to be checked. I wasn’t ready to leave his side, but I also wasn’t about be difficult. I would come back tomorrow.

\----

Sleep did not come easy that night. It hasn’t come easy since before the incident on the mountain, leaving each and every one of the people I care about forever changed, myself included. The guilt ate away at me. Thoughts of how I shouldn’t be home in my bed, but up with Josh at his bedside waiting for a sign that his eyes will finally open. I owe him that much. I stay up thinking about our friends. Do they know yet? I haven’t told them. Surely at least Sam must have been contacted. I’ll call her tomorrow, but for now I need my mind to be at ease. I lie in bed staring at the slowly rotating ceiling fan for what felt like an eternity. I need sleep. I need it, but it will not come naturally. I get up and trudge my way to the bathroom and open the cabinet to grab the vial. I’m not addicted, they just help me sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love to continue this if some people like it since I have an idea where I'd like it to go, so let me know if you'd want this to continue or not. 
> 
> Thanks for reading, as always xoxo 
> 
> (I apologize for spelling/grammar mistakes. I edit at like 1 a.m)


End file.
